No One`s In Control Of This Snoozer

MOVIE REVIEW - (1 1/2 stars)

Tony Danza has evolved into such an engaging actor -- a kind of cut-rate, blue-collar Jack Lemmon -- that he is inevitably the only reason to see a dim comedy like She`s Out of Control.

But he`s not enough. Charlie Chaplin wouldn`t be enough. Not only isn`t She`s Out of Control a good movie, it`s not even bad in an interesting way. After establishing the germ of an intriguing comic premise in the first 15 minutes, the filmmakers resolutely head in exactly the opposite direction.

Danza plays Doug Simpson, the manager of an FM rock station in Los Angeles. Doug is the divorced father of two daughters, the oldest of whom, Katie (Ami Dolenz), is about to turn 15. Doug comes home from work early, gives Katie an oversized teddy bear for her birthday, and, the next day, leaves on a business trip.

While he`s gone, Doug`s girlfriend, Janet (Catherine Hicks), gives Katie the present she really wants: Janet has the braces removed from Katie`s teeth, trades Katie`s horn-rimmed eyeglasses for contact lenses, pays for a cosmetic makeover and a flashy new wardrobe.

To the surprise of everyone but the audience, Katie turns out to be utterly gorgeous. Doug returns home to find the phone ringing off the hook and boys queuing up around the block. He panics. Where is the little girl he raised ... and who is this sex kitten who has replaced her?

The problem with She`s Out of Control is that she never really is. In the hands of filmmakers with some imagination -- or at least a little nerve -- Katie would be as assertive a character as Doug is, and there would be a real tug of war (and values) in that house.

But in the hands of Stan Dragoti (Love at First Bite, How to Beat the High Cost of Living), as maladroit a comedy director as ever moved up from TV commercials, She`s Out of Control is safe and boring. Everything about the script and characters is calculated, including the decision to have Doug run a rock radio station, so he`ll seem hip.

The film is rarely funny, but when it is, it`s because of something Danza has managed to introduce. No one ever gives a good performance in a movie as clumsy as this one, but, of all the cast, Danza survives the longest before the material drags him down, too.

Eight years ago, Danza co-starred with a bunch of chimpanzees in his first movie, Going Ape. In She`s Out of Control, he co-stars with Ami Dolenz, the daughter of one of the Monkees, Micky Dolenz. There`s some kind of continuum there, but it doesn`t merit any more thought than the movie that inspired it.

SHE`S OUT OF CONTROL

A father panics when his nerdy teen-age daughter blossoms into womanhood.